Dielectric materials are electrical insulators that can be polarized by an applied electric field, which makes dielectric materials useful for many applications, such as energy storage within electrical capacitors. Many capacitors use films made from thermoplastic dielectric polymers. Furthermore, polymers such as polypropylene (PP) and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) are used for high voltage applications, i.e., at least kilo-volt range dielectrics. However, dielectric polymers, as is typical of most dielectric or electrical insulating materials, undergo significant losses in dielectric strength, or insulating resistance, when subjected to stresses, such as applied AC or DC electrical stresses.
Also, dielectric materials exhibit many other electrical properties, such as charge/discharge efficiency, dielectric constant, dielectric loss, for example, over a specific range of electric frequency and/or voltage ranges, and overall energy density. However, these electrical properties must frequently be balanced in designing components for the service applications and/or environments in which they are used, such as dielectric materials. For example, some dielectric polymers, e.g., PP and PET, have excellent charge/discharge efficiencies but have relatively low dielectric constants. To date, past attempts to provide dielectric materials having high dielectric constants and high charge/discharge efficiencies have failed.
With the foregoing in view, the inventor has provided novel classes of modified fluoropolymers for use in, for example, dielectric materials, including dielectric films, for applications that include at least capacitors, e.g., high voltage capacitors; resonators, such as antennas and oscillating circuits, separators and/or binders for cells, batteries, and the like; and actuators, micro-actuators, transducers, and sensors that exhibit higher charge/discharge efficiency and low dielectric loss in high fields without sacrificing overall energy density and other electrical properties, such as dielectric constant, impedance, and capacitance, and have larger voltage ranges and/or frequency ranges for service applications having varied and/or variable environmental requirements.